Peace Corps Preparatory Program

Knox is the pilot site—and the first college or university in the country—with an official Peace Corps Preparatory Program. This program features a curriculum designed to prepare students to serve in the Peace Corps or in international service. The program includes coursework in international studies, education, and foreign language study, as well as a community service project or opportunity to study abroad. Candidates for the Peace Corps Preparatory Program will be required, beginning in the spring of 2010, to take a seminar on international service (to be offered for a half-credit). The course will address ways in which Americans can work to assist others beyond our borders, study the organizations engaged in international service, and the experiences of those who participate in the work of those organizations. The seminar will also address critical, environmental, economic, and educational issues in our increasingly globalized world and also the history of international service. Interested students apply to the Peace Corps Preparatory Program as sophomores, then spend their junior and senior years fulfilling the program's requirements.

The Peace Corps Program serves to advance the goals of the Peace Corps under its charter: to help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women; to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; and to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. Although participation in Peace Corps Prep doesn't guarantee that applicants will be accepted as volunteers, the specialized curriculum and experience should make them strong candidates. Peace Corps expects to widen its pool of qualified candidates by rolling the Knox College pilot program out to other colleges and universities across the country.

Since 1961, more than 187,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have helped promote a better understanding between Americans and the people of the 139 countries where volunteers have served.

Knox has a long tradition of sending graduates to the Peace Corps, as many as five graduates annually. In the 1960s, Knox had one of the highest percentages of graduates in the Peace Corps of any college in the nation. The high percentage of Knox alumni serving in the Peace Corps was among the criteria used by The Washington Monthly magazine when it recently recognized Knox as one of the nation's top 25 liberal arts colleges.